Joseph Smith 1844 presidential campaign

Joseph Smith 1844 presidential campaign
Campaign	1844 United States presidential election
Candidate	Joseph Smith (for President) Sidney Rigdon (for Vice President)
Affiliation	Reform Party
Status	Smith was assassinated prior to the election
Headquarters	Nauvoo, Illinois
Key people	Willard Richards John M. Bernhisel W.W. Phelps Lucian R. Foster
Slogan	Super hanc petram aedificabo

The campaign of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith and his vice presidential running mate, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints First Presidency first counselor Sidney Rigdon, took place in 1844. The United States presidential election of that year was scheduled for November 1 to December 4, but Smith was killed in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27. Smith was the first Latter Day Saint to seek the presidency, and the first American presidential candidate to be assassinated.^[1]

In 1844, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, which was then the second most populous city in Illinois with 12,000 residents.^[2] Latter Day Saint leaders requested that adherents vote in a bloc behind candidates endorsed by church leaders. As a result, the city's Latter Day Saint residents held the balance of power between the Democrats and Whigs in state elections.^[3] Smith also commanded a quasi-public military force, the Nauvoo Legion, that with 2,500 men was almost one-third the size of the U.S. Army.^[4] Wicks and Foister argue in Junius and Joseph that political operatives with ties to Smith's Whig opponent Henry Clay were present at events surrounding the raid on the jail where Smith was awaiting trial for treason, among other charges.^[5]

In his campaign platform, Smith proposed to gradually end slavery, to reduce the size of Congress, to re-establish a national bank, to annex Texas, California, and Oregon, to reform prisons, and to authorize the federal government to protect the liberties of Latter Day Saints and other minorities.